176 | GOODWOOD REVIVAL SALE
‘Stardust’, the penultimate car of the series, was built on the
DK400 limousine chassis and bodied by Hooper at a reported cost
of £12,500. The coachwork was finished in Royal Blue and silver,
with 5,000 silver six-pointed stars on the sides, while the dancer
bonnet mascot was modelled on Lady Docker herself.
Norah once again excelled when it came to the interior decor,
specifying hand-woven silver-grey silk brocatelle upholstery for the
rear compartment and blue crocodile skin trim for the aluminium
cabinets. The central division and double-glazed side windows
were electrically operated, as was the sliding shutter beneath the
fixed glass sunroof above the rear seats. There were four crocodile
skin suitcases in the boot. For all its opulence, the relatively
restrained ‘Stardust’ exhibited surprisingly good taste, and a similar
car was made by Hooper for the Queen Mother in 1955.
In April 1956, ‘Golden Zebra’ and ‘Stardust’ were shipped to the
South of France for the wedding of Prince Rainier of Monaco and
film star Grace Kelly, to which Sir Bernard and Lady Docker had
been invited. Their invitations are sold with the car. By this time
the Dockers’ perceived extravagance was causing rumblings of
discontent within the BSA Group board and on 30th May 1956 a
special meeting was called that resulted in Sir Bernard being voted
out of office. The board concluded that the five ‘Docker Daimlers’
had been commissioned, not to generate publicity for the company
as the Dockers claimed, but for the couple’s personal amusement.
Sir Bernard ended up with a £50,000 bill for their construction, to
which the Inland Revenue added a further £20,000 tax bill.With their creators banished, the Daimler show cars were stripped
of their expensive trimmings and sold. In 1966 ‘Golden Zebra’,
which cost £12,000 to build (many times the value of the average
semi-detached house at the time) was offered for sale by Daimler
distributors Henlys of Chester with 25,000 miles on the clock for
only £1,400.